Improvement in folding chairs



J. E. WAKEFIELD.

FQLDING-CHAIRS.

No. 195,547. Patented Sept.25.1877.

NPE'I'EI'IEIS, PHOTO'LITHOGRAEHER, WASHKNGTUN, D 2

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICI' JOHN E. WAKEFIELD, OF WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO EDWARD W. VAILL, 0F SAME PLACE.

IMPROVEMENT IN FOLDING CHAIRS.

Specification formingpart of Letters Patent No. [95,547, dated September 25, 1877; application filed July 14, 1877.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, JOHN E. WAKEFIELD, of Worcester, in the State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Folding Rocking-Chairs, of which the following is a specification In Letters Patent No. 179,979 a chair is shown in which the seat is connected by links to the seat-frame, and folds up against the back.

In my present improvement, the rigid backframe is pivoted to the upper ends of the front legs, and the rigid seat or seat-frame is hinged to the back legs, and connected by links to the cross-bar or hearing on thefront legs, so that the seat is raised and folds downward, as in an application recently made by me; but in this present instance I make use of rockers, and combine with the parts of the folding chair aforesaid back legs, that are each made of two parts, pivoted together, so that when the chair is folded the parts of the back legs stand at an angle to each other, and allow the rockers to fold up behind the back legs.

In the drawing, Figure 1 is a side view of the rocking-chair as open for use. Fig. 2 is a section of the chair as folded for transportation.

The back-frame is made of the side pieces a a, connected by the back cross-pieces b, and the front legs 0 extend up to the back, and are pivoted to the same, as at d, as in the patent of Peter Born, No. 6,815, reissue.

The seat f is pivoted to the back-frame or, preferably by the bracket-irons '5, and there are links 1 extending from the middle part of the seat or seat-frame forward and downward to the cross-rail m, so that in folding the chair I the seat is raised, and then it is turned downward, the links 6 swinging around the crossrail m, as the seat turns downwardly in folding.

The back-frame does not extend to the rockers; but the back legs are made in two parts, the supplemental back legs n being pivoted at their upper ends to the bottom part of the back legs a, and at their lower ends to the rockers t, and the rockers and the front legs 0 are also pivoted together.

When the chair is open in the position shown in Fig. 1, the seat -frame and links 1 serve to retain the front and back legs at the regular distance apart, and this cannot be raised accidentally; hence there is no risk of the supplemental back legs folding or closing downwardly so long as the seat is in position; but when the seat is raised, the links l swing, and the back frame and the front legs approach each other, and the supplemental back legs a fold toward the rockers, and the rockers turn up behind the backframe, while the seat-frame folds downwardly, and the entire chair occupies but little space in transportation.

1 claim as my invention- The combination, in a folding rocking-chair, of the supplemental back legs, the back-frame, and the rockers pivoted together, the front legs pivoted to the rockers and to the backframe, and the seat or seat-frame pivoted to the back legs, and connected by the links to the cross-rail m, substantially as set forth.

Signed by me this 10th day of July, A. D. 1877.

JOHN E. WAKEFIELD.

Witnesses A. B. DUNBAR,

O. S. GORDON. 

